We obviously think this view is incredibly short sighted. But we’re happy to see it’s not just us who are challenging the conventional view that people won’t pay for things on the Internet.

In a recent TechCrunch article that explores the whole concept of freemium services, MG Siegler lists the services that he would gladly pay for, and the list is interesting:

Facebook
Twitter
Gmail
YouTube
Digg
Friendfeed
Instapaper

In fact, MG Siegler goes on to compare these services to the $2000/year that he forks over to Comcast:

“I would rather pay a bunch of hard working start-ups (and yes some bigger services like YouTube — owned by Google — and Flickr — owned by Yahoo) all that money” [than pay Comcast] for “mediocre content and shit service.”

We did a quick poll around the office, and here’s a list of some of the subscription services that Zuora employees are willing to (and in some cases do) pay for:

FREE (but we’d gladly pay for):NPR podcasts
Hulu – television episodes
Online News Services – this came up a few times, e.g. New York Times
Food Network – especially if they had a premium content only version
Fit Sugar – fitness and health tips from the people who bring you the “insanely addictive” PopSugar

What free services would you be willing to pay for if premium features were available?